Current UCPD Assistant Chief Mitch Celaya has been appointed as the department's new chief beginning August 1, a campus official announced Monday evening.

Celaya, a longtime UCPD veteran and one of two finalists in a nation-wide search for the position, will replace outgoing Chief Victoria Harrison, said Nathan Brostrom, UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor, in a campus email.

"Mitch has been a member of the UC Police Department since 1982, moving up the ranks from officer to lieutenant, captain, and for the past three years, Assistant Chief of Police," Brostrom said in the email. "In these roles he has experienced every aspect of policing in Berkeley's complex environment."

David Kozicki, Deputy Chief of the Oakland Police Department, was also a finalist for the position.

Brostrom did not mention merging the UC Berkeley and UCSF police departments under one chief, a possibility that was announced in late June. The search for a UCPD chief was suspended at that time, and no detailed plans have surfaced about the restructuring.

Should the departments be restructured, they would be lead by a single chief, campus officials said.

Tags: UCPD CHIEF SEARCH